The Moldavian Connection

  It is funny how the love of food can bring people together!

 

Once every 2 weeks, my partner and I wanted to have someone who could help us around the house- just with the general cleaning. Well, since a couple of years a lady named Mina has taken over that duty. She is a very kind lady, and I do feel very comfortable around her. The only problem is that I cannot really understand her very well. Apart from that, when she comes, I am usually doing my own thing and never really want to engage in any sort of small-talk. Sometime, it is just too much of an effort for me. Yes, I am not always very sociable and I just love my own private space at times.

 

The normal procedure is that I would let her in, greet her, exchange a hello here and there, maybe even ask how she is doing and then she would scuttle along her way to begin the cleaning.  I would then return to resume whenever I may have been doing.

 

Once her job was completed, she would approach me timidly to inform me that she was finished. I would walk her out the door, wave good-bye and tell her to have a good week. This went on for weeks, for months and actually for the past two years!

 

I noticed a slight change in our pattern shortly before Christmas when I started baking more than usual. She came into the kitchen and paused to take a look at all the goodies. Then I offered her some to taste. I offered to give her some to take home, but she refused. I figured that she did not like them. Then the following week, she paused again in the kitchen, and this time he asked if she could have some. I gave her a box of goodies to take home to her family. For the weeks before and after Christmas, she took home many a packet filled of baked goods. But the real change in our relationship did not happen until I asked her one day if she liked to cook and bake.

 

That was it! This was indeed the hook!!!

 

It has taken 2 years for us to realise that we share the same love and passion for cooking and baking. She told me all about the favourites of her home country Maldovia-what she cooks for her husband each night and what she enjoys baking most.

 

We made a deal 2 weeks ago that the next time she came, we would bake something together and she really kept her promise. She arrived a couple of days ago with a much larger smile than usual and an excitement which I had never seen.  She handed me a large bag of white glossy beans and said that this is what we would be making today, and then some bread! I was jittery like a little child I tell you!

   Then all of a sudden she was transformed. She entered the kitchen with a command as if it belonged to her. She got out whatever equipment she needed, grabbed whatever ingredients she needed from the refrigerator and began her “thing”. As I watched her, I felt as if she was much larger than usual. No really, she is a little woman of about 4 foot 9 inches if at all. But behind the stove, with such a command, I really saw her in a much larger light! It is amazing how ones aura changes when one is in their element. She was clearly in her element! The cleaning? Well, I ended up finsihing it up, as we had lost time cooking. We made a deal that once a month we would cook something Moldavian together and I am really looking forward to it!!!
The next two recipes are the outcome of our…well actually 90 percent her cooking, a white bean puree, and a feta-studded corn bread!